I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paging call back system which permits telephone numbers received with a radio paging unit to be responded to using a mobile radio telephone.
II. Background Information
Radio paging systems and mobile radio telephone systems are well known and widely used. Radio paging systems operate, upon receipt of a page, to provide a user with audio and/or visual information from the paging party, but are not capable of transmitting information back to the paging party.
Typically, a radio paging system comprises a control unit located in a central area of a region and a plurality of mobile pagers carried by different individuals within that region. When a paging party wishes to speak with one of the individuals carrying a pager, the paging party dials the telephone number of the central control unit, which may be an automatic device or may be operated by a human operator, (for example a telephone answering service) and leaves a message for that individual. The central control unit will then transmit a radio signal addressed to the pager carried by the individual who was paged. Upon receipt of this radio signal, the pager carried by the individual who was paged will provide either a visual or audio indication that the party has been paged. The present invention employs the type of pager that is capable of receiving and displaying a telephone number of the paging party seeking to speak to the paged individual. Some of these pagers can also display other alpha-numeric information, such as the time and date of the message.
Recently, a nationwide paging service has become a reality. This is a major advance in the pager technology. It is now possible for an individual to receive a page message wherever he is in the United States.
The present state of radio paging technology is less than ideal, however, due to the receive only nature of that technology. Specifically, after an individual carrying a pager has learned that a paging party wishes to initiate a telephone conference, that individual must locate a telephone communication system to contact the paging party.
In contrast, mobile radio telephone systems allow easy two way communication with a recipient party while that party is traveling outside of the home or office, for example, in a car, boat, airplane, other type of vehicle, or while walking. However, because a mobile telephone system is often vehicle based, or may not otherwise always be in the possession of the user, the user of such a system may miss important telephone calls when he is not in the vehicle in which the system is mounted or is not in possession of the radio telephone. That user will have no way of knowing which calls have been missed. In addition, because users of radio telephone systems are often billed for all telephone calls received or placed on their mobile systems, it is desirable that the users have a method of selecting which telephone calls to place or accept.
Finally, with the advent of cellular mobile telephone systems in major metropolitan areas of the United States, a mobile radio telephone may not be able to receive telephone calls if it is outside of its local cellular network. This is so because it will not have been assigned a telephone number on which it may receive telephone calls outside that cellular network. Therefore, it may not be possible to reach someone who is using a mobile radio telephone system outside of his local cellular network.